“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV).

Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
Had Thou not chosen me.
Thou from sin that stained me
Has cleansed me and set me free;
Of old thou did ordain me,
That I should live for Thee.

I would urge all my readers to read this WORLD article on the 2oth anniversary of a life-changing event in China!

Out of post-massacre despair, Chinese demonstrators learned not only that communism is crushing but that democracy alone cannot save.

The article reads in part,

“Though the world watched—with the image of a lone man staring down a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square becoming one of the iconic images of the 20th century—the Chinese government denies that it ­happened: Even 20 years later Chinese officials call the bloody crackdown of 1989 “a political disturbance” of “counter-revolutionary hooligans” and claim civilians incited the violence. They offer no official death count but claim that deaths were few, and they never released an official total of arrests. Human-rights groups estimate officials arrested tens of thousands of protesters and dissidents around the country in the massacre’s aftermath.

Chinese textbooks don’t mention the event. Chinese censors block internet access to much information on the massacre. Government officials forbid state-run media from reporting about it. And in recent weeks, Chinese officials have jailed at least one dissident for speaking out against the military’s actions at Tiananmen Square—a common fate for outspoken opponents of the government.

Despite modern technology and the benefit of time and research, it’s possible that today’s Chinese students know less about the historic event than those of 20 years ago, when word of mouth spread news of the massacre like wildfire.

But if Chinese officials hope that Tiananmen Square’s significance will dim with time, human-rights groups are reminding the world of the massacre and outspoken eyewitnesses remain.”

I think the answer to this question is, “It depends what we do with our freedom!” We can turn any blessing from God into a curse! And I think that is what Christianity has largely done with our freedoms in this great nation. Now our freedoms are being dismantled slowly but surely. We should stand for our freedoms and seek to keep them while we still have time.

Yet, God in His sovereignty may choose to take our freedoms from us. Will that be good or bad for the church? Well, I can tell you from first-hand experience that the church of Jesus Christ is flourishing in lands where freedom is severely limited! So democracy isn’t necessary for Christianity to flourish.